JOHN MODICA, 1931-2013

John Modica loved teaching, coaching and politics,
and it was a good thing. Otherwise, who would have been
there to corral some of the well-known free spirits in
public life?

Modica, an educator by training and a Democratic
Party stalwart by conviction, was a counselor and
sometime father figure to a generation of Delaware
politicians. He died Friday at the age of 81.

"It is like losing a second father," said Charlie
Oberly, the U.S. attorney and past three-term Democratic
attorney general who was one of the free spirits Modica
took under his wing.

Modica was a blend of smarts, athletic vigor and
common sense, someone who instinctively knew right from
wrong, embracing the one and shunning the other with
easy confidence.

He was around long enough to remember the days when a
lot of politics was conducted in basements with stashes
of cash, but it was never his style. Instead, he was
part of a great political renewal, fueled by a new
spirit of public mindedness, the inspiration of the
youthful John F. Kennedy, and post-war prosperity some
50 years ago.

"We go back to 1959. We all really were getting into
it because of Kennedy. I was getting involved in
Citizens for Kennedy. A lot of us were," said John
Daniello, the Democratic state chair.

It is a testament to Modica's tenacity that he
survived and thrived in politics even though he was
based in Brandywine Hundred, in those days a Republican
stronghold fortified by legions of civically inclined
DuPonters.

What Modica had going for him was his
larger-than-life presence at Brandywine High School,
where he was an art teacher and football coach. The
football field there is named in tribute to him.

Modica's fondness for free spirits goes back to those
days. Just ask Alan Levin.

Now the state's economic development director, a
Republican in Jack Markell's Democratic administration,
Levin used to run the Happy Harry's drugstore chain,
started by his father, until it was acquired by
Walgreens.

Levin was a student a Concord High School, also in
the Brandywine School District.

"I would come home, and my father would know how I
was screwing up at school, and I could never figure out
how. I was just amazed my father knew what I did or did
not do," Levin said.

Not until Levin was a senior in college did his
father reveal his source. It was Modica, no doubt
getting the information from other art teachers at
Concord.

"I was very fortunate because I don't think Mr.
Modica told him everything," Levin said.

Years later, when Levin was in charge of Happy
Harry's, he retained Modica as one of its lobbyists in
Legislative Hall in Dover.

By far, Modica's most famous reclamation project was
Charlie Oberly, who was a problem student back in his
days at Brandywine High School but still found himself
on Modica's good side.

"Many athletic coaches found value only in athletes,
but John didn't. Yes, he was a football coach, but other
students mattered to him, maybe because he was an art
teacher. John treated non-athletes with every bit as
much respect as athletes," Oberly said.

Oberly eventually got himself straightened out
academically, earned a law degree and became a state
prosecutor. He got into politics in 1982 by running
against Rich Gebelein, the sitting Republican attorney
general who was his boss.

For the voice of reason in the upstart campaign,
Oberly turned to Modica, whose store of political
knowledge and experience included a term as a chair of
the New Castle County Democrats.

"When I started to think about running for office, he
was the first guy I thought of," Oberly said.

Oberly has never forgotten Modica's caustic review of
his performance after his first debate with Gebelein.
Oberly thought he had done well, but on some point or
other, he had agreed with Gebelein, and Modica let him
have it.

"He said, if you like the guy so much, why don't you
stop running and vote for him? That's not the way you
run for office, by praising him," Oberly said.

Modica nearly saved Oberly from one of the greatest
pratfalls in modern Delaware politics, if only Oberly
had listened.

Going into his re-election campaign in 1986, Oberly
was feuding with the Democratic Party, which he thought
had not properly reimbursed him some money from his
first race. Oberly decided to withhold part of his
filing fee, which is collected by election officials and
turned over to the party.

"I've told this story to my own embarrassment. John
was sitting in the car with me when I went to file and
said, Charlie, I don't think you should do this," Oberly
said.

Oberly did, anyway, and it nearly cost him his spot
on the ballot. Long story short, he needed a ruling from
the Court of Chancery to be able to run.

"Not taking his sage advice, I proceeded at my own
peril," Oberly said.